DARPA

DARPA, often in the public eye due to its extensive robotics efforts, has turned its sights towards the human body with its ElectRx program. Standing for Electrical Prescriptions, ElectRx is an effort to create what amounts to self-healing soldiers using a "closed-loop system."

Northrop Grumman has shown off what it believes the military spaceplane of the future should look like, a futuristic and reusable aircraft designed as part of a $3.9m DARPA contract. The Experimental Spaceplane XS-1 would automate a large percentage of flight, as well as kick-start hypersonic aircraft development once more, Northrop Grumman claims, though the company still has competition.

A new report into DARPA-funded research draws deep connections between computer games for children and advanced military software, a modern day Ender's Game using STEM to improve US soldier training. These aren't pre-teens inadvertently directing fleets of starships to destroy alien planets, though, with the kids instead said to be unknowingly helping develop software which will train military personnel on things like avoiding counter-insurgency and pacifying occupied territories.

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has produced many interesting projects, among them being a slew of beastly robots that hold many promises. One decidedly non-robotic project, however, has successfully passed its first live tests.

If imitation is the best form of flattery, then geckos should feel honored. Taking inspiration from what it claims are the world's best climbers, DARPA's Z-Man project demonstrated how a human of rather heavy constitution can scale up a vertical wall using nothing other than a pair of paddles.

Robotics has seen many substantial developments over the past few years, not the least of which is due to DARPA efforts. One of the newest ones is from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, more commonly called KAIST, that has developed a sprinting robot dubbed the Raptor.

DARPA, the US government's R&D arm, is looking to Oculus Rift to make cyber-warfare more approachable to the American military, immersing the military in 3D representations of target networks. Part of Plan X, DARPA's ongoing work on reducing the technical requirements for a new age of digital warfare, the Oculus integration is currently only conceptual, though the agency says it has already been briefed on upcoming hardware from the headset company.

DARPA has created a simple-looking and handy heads-up display (HUD) for infantry soldiers, with the unit being attached to their helmet and positioned in front of one eye. It is quite a bit larger than the tiny displays used in Glass and similar products, being akin to the HUD fighter pilots use.

The latest DARPA grant has gone to Logos Technologies, which will use it to develop an almost completely silent stealth motorcycle for military use. There isn't much information on the bike at this time, but when it comes to fruition, it would be used by elite teams of soldiers.

This past August, MIT unboxed the impressive Atlas Robot for the DARPA Robotics Challenge, revealing a rather massive piece of machinery complete with various tethers that provide it with fluid and other necessities. In the next six or so months, MIT aims to get rid of those cables, among other things.